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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Initial Feedback: The City That Offensive Talent Forgot

Initial feedback: A completely subjective and immediate response to the events of tonight's game, featuring a comment and rating, the latter on a scale of 1 to 10, on every player who saw the floor and the head coach, along with ephemera and miscellany as the author deems necessary.

Your ratings and commentary, dear reader, are welcomed in the comments to this post.

PlayersJeff Teague: Carried the Hawks offensively and was the number one non-Hornets reason for the win. 24 points on 11 shots, 4 assists, and nary a turnover. Not sure you can play better than that. 9/10

Joe Johnson: A terrible shooting night but another entry in the ledger of wonder: How was Al Horford's presence preventing Joe Johnson from rebounding? 5/10

Marvin Williams: From one perspective, a very able sidekick to Teague. From another, the best possible game one can have while blowing the finish on an alley-oop in embarrassing fashion. 6/10

Josh Smith: Not a great night, but if you're going to phone one in, the Hornets are as good a team as any to do so against. The most impressive thing about Smith's night were the blocks he got while playing help defense against his own man after getting beat. 4/10

Zaza Pachulia: A workmanlike effort. Nothing more was needed. 4/10

Willie Green: There was worry about the Hawks replacing Jamal Crawford but between Jeff Teague's non-rebounding and Willie Green making 30-footers at the end of quarters, the Hawks haven't missed a beat. Willie Green is having a career season. Maybe Larry Drew is to whatever Willie Green is as Mike Woodson was to Crawford and Flip Murray. 6/10

Tracy McGrady: I don't envy the fine line Larry Drew needs to walk between keeping McGrady sharp and not taxing his body. I'll admit to flinching as McGrady landed following his fourth quarter alley-oop from Hinrich. 5/10

Kirk Hinrich: He's nowhere near sharp but, without exaggerating matters, the value he can provide this team is still apparent. 4/10

Jason Collins: I don't know why you play Jason Collins instead of Vladimir Radmanovic against the Hornets, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't affect the result. The Hawks were +23 in the 25 minutes Collins didn't play. Effectively padded his rebound total in garbage time. 2/10

Vladimir Radmanovic: Can't blame a man his age for going through the motions and running out the clock. 1/10

Jannero Pargo: If anything, he should shoot more once the game's decided. 2/10

Jerry Stackhouse: This space left intentionally blank. 1/10

The head coachThe Hawks are, in Al Horford's absence, essentially a defensive team. They aren't going to score efficiently or consistently enough to keep pace when their opponent scores on a regular basis. This isn't to say that the Hawks are an excellent defensive team but they can certainly handle a team that uses Jarrett Jack and Jason Smith as options one and two and plays Trevor Ariza and Al-Farouq Aminu together on the wing. Even on a sub-par night, the Hawks could thoroughly overwhelm what was left of the Hornets. 6/10

A thought regarding the oppositionPoor Monty Williams. At least he didn't have to suffer the indignity of Dominique Wilkins insisting that the Hornets' offensive problems were down to scheme rather than the "talent" available.

Felt the same way following TMac's alley-oop in the 4th. I don't totally understand the reasoning on leaving him in for so long when VladRad could just as easily provide the old guy minutes once the game was in hand.

dwayne.bracy I would chalk that up to a combination of the redundancy of Josh and Al and a very weak schedule. Get back to me at the end of February with any thoughts regarding how good the Hawks are without Al.

Meanwhile this Toronto game is going to be VEERY interesting for the coaching match-up alone.